plagiarized college application essay

Are You Admitting Students with Plagiarized Application Essays?

Keeping Your Culture of Integrity Intact

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It’s a point of pride for many institutions to view their applicant pool as the cream of the crop, obviously untainted by plagiarism or cheating. It’s also the purpose of an admissions committee to peruse applications without suspicion or bias. Therefore, it’s easiest to assume that applications are honest representations of student potential.

But are they?

If students who engage in plagiarism are the most vulnerable and desperate students—why wouldn’t those behaviors cross over into the world of higher education admissions?

The realm of admissions is fraught for students. Competition is fierce . Students may feel desperate. The stakes are very, very high; students feel their entire future is based on which university they attend. For so many, their entire remembering lives focus on this very moment.

Even decades later, every moment of my own college applications process remains vivid in my memory. I still have nightmares (along with the one about missing a final exam) about the admissions process. I remember reading samples of successful college essays and yearning to write such winning statements. I remember aching over every word as I wrote my own essay. I remember the feeling of being judged. Of not being “enough.” I remember running to the mailbox for months, dreaming of big envelopes. I remember cohorts at school sharing to which universities they’d been accepted. I remember the counseling center holding Ivy League acceptances in the spotlight.

This emotional battleground may sound familiar—these are all the components that put students at risk of plagiarism. These are factors that leave students, not to mention their parents, vulnerable to plagiarism and dishonesty.

So what happens under temptation? When one makes decisions under stress, one thinks about what one can live with. One wonders if what one is doing is legal.

Is lying on your application essay against the law ? So far, none of the students in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal have been charged—the charges have instead named parents and largely focused on money laundering, mail fraud, and racketeering . So while lying on your application essay is clearly an act of misconduct, the message is that it may not be “against the law.”

So what’s the message here? Just don’t get caught? The act of cheating fades into the background in the world of legal ramifications, and in the foreground are consequences for the ways in which payment was made. Also in the foreground are the universities themselves, whose reputations are on the line. So who’ s at risk?

When firms exist to coach students through the application process, sometimes crossing over into essay mill territory , they take control of the narrative and make this territory morally ambiguous. As a result, “getting help” on college applications isn’ t presented with moral clarity to students.

Another moral litmus test is the question, “What would your mother think?” If you felt your parents wanted you to go to an elite college, above all else—it’s logical to think your mom would approve, let alone participate in misconduct .

Are we making clear how vulnerable college applications are to cheating? And how cheating is tempting? And the ways in which one can justify dishonesty?

It’s common for institutions to say they don’t have a problem with plagiarized application essays. To say, “No way would anyone who applies to our institution plagiarize.” Or to say, “There’s no way to plagiarize a personal statement because it’s so personal.”

Janet D. Stemwedel, notes in her article, “ When Applicants for Medical Residencies Plagiarize ,” that 5.2% of 4,975 medical residency personal statements contained evidence of plagiarism.

When you admit someone who’s plagiarized or outsourced their application essay into your institution, you’re poisoning your culture. How can you expect someone who’s plagiarized their way through admissions to embrace an ethical culture on campus? How can you expect someone who’s plagiarized their application essay to uphold academic integrity?

The studies are only now being conducted on links between plagiarized application essays and subsequent instances of plagiarism on campus. The preliminary anecdotes make clear the possibility of a connection.

So the short answer is that you cannot expect someone who’s plagiarized their application essay to uphold academic integrity on campus. You must make plagiarism detection a part of your institution’s admissions process. You must free up your admissions committee to read applications without suspicion.

We’ve already seen through various admissions scandals the stain they leave on an institution’s reputation . We’ve already seen through various admissions scandals the short cuts and side doors people are willing to take to enter higher education. What’s stopping students who got away with cheating on their applications from continuing this pattern of misconduct once on campus?

As we stated earlier, earlier academic dishonesty leads to later workplace deviance .

And yes—the majority of students don’t cheat on their applications. The majority of students don’t outsource their application essays. The majority of students don’t plagiarize. But are you comfortable with even 1% acceptance of students who cheated on their applications? Of students for whom “short-cut” answers are an acceptable component of their playbook?

In a 2012 Insider Higher Education article entitled, “ Dishonorable Conduct? ” written in response to a cheating scandal at Harvard University , Allie Grasgreen states, “Perhaps the main culprit in such behavior, experts say, one that is ingrained deeply in college students today—particularly at elite universities like Harvard—is the idea that the main objective should be to pass, not to learn.”

In the same article, Teddi Fishman, director of Clemson University’s International Center for Academic Integrity , says:

“The students who make it to us (and especially the ones who end up in schools like Harvard) have learned exactly what they have to do to succeed, and sadly, that often has very little to do with becoming educated….Instead, it’s almost solely about figuring out what will be asked (in papers, tests, and other assessments), learning that material long enough to produce it when necessary, and then moving on to the next thing.”

Fishman says that for many students, the educational process “is simply a means to an end.”

This on-campus cheating and short-cut mentality could just as easily be applied to application essays, with the singular objective being “get accepted.” It goes to follow that such a person would bring that short-cut mentality with them onto your campus. It’s endemic to the environment, and while it shouldn’t exist at all, you must make sure they do not enter your gates.

And vice versa—someone who has the basis for academic honesty going in will be way more likely to uphold academic integrity. And we can surmise that ensuring the admission of honest students would then decrease plagiarism cases and scandals, thereby upholding an institution’s academic reputation. Who would you bet on to represent you throughout the course of a lifetime?

Want to uphold academic integrity in your admissions process? Learn more about iThenticate .

The Perils of Plagiarizing Your College Application Essay

Kate Sliunkova

AdmitYogi, Stanford MBA & MA in Education

Applying to college can be a daunting task, with many moving parts to keep in mind. Amongst the most critical is an application essay, often viewed as the most personal part of the admissions process. This essay is supposed to give admissions officers an insight into who you are as a person, your passions, and your goals. However, many students make the grave mistake of plagiarizing their application essays, which can have severe consequences. In this article, we'll discuss the perils of plagiarism in college application essays and what you can do to avoid it.

Understanding Plagiarism in College Applications

Before we get started, it's essential to understand what plagiarism is and why it is such a significant issue in college application essays. At its core, plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's ideas or words as your own, without giving them proper credit. In other words, it's cheating and is taken very seriously in academic settings.

Plagiarism is not only unethical but can also have severe consequences for students. It can lead to a loss of credibility, academic sanctions, and even expulsion from school. Therefore, it is crucial to understand what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it in your college application essays.

What Constitutes Plagiarism

Plagiarism can take many forms but is most commonly found in the following examples:

• Copying and pasting content from another website or source without proper citation.
• Paraphrasing someone else's words too closely and not giving them credit.
• Using someone else's ideas or arguments without acknowledging them.
• Having someone else write your essay for you and passing it off as your own work.

It is essential to understand that plagiarism is not limited to written content. It can also occur in images, graphs, and other forms of media. Therefore, it is crucial to give proper credit to the original source in all aspects of your college application.

Common Types of Plagiarism in Application Essays

The pressure to create a perfect application can lead to plagiarism in several ways. Some common types of plagiarism found in college application essays include:

• Using essays from other applications or online sources and changing a few words to make it "yours."
• Copying and pasting from your previous work without proper citation.
• Copying from other people's essays or buying essays online and submitting them as your own.

It is crucial to remember that college application essays are an opportunity for you to showcase your unique perspective and personality. Admissions officers want to hear your voice and your story, not someone else's. Therefore, it is essential to avoid plagiarism and write original content that reflects who you are as a person.

Additionally, many colleges now use plagiarism detection software to ensure the authenticity of application essays. Therefore, even if you think you can get away with plagiarism, the risk of getting caught is high, and the consequences can be severe.

In conclusion, plagiarism is a serious issue in college application essays that can have severe consequences for students. It is essential to understand what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it in your writing. Remember, your college application essay is an opportunity to showcase your unique perspective and personality, so be authentic and write from the heart.

The consequences of plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious offense that can have severe consequences, both academically and personally. It is a breach of academic integrity and can lead to numerous negative outcomes.

Rejection from Colleges and Universities

One of the most significant consequences of plagiarism is the rejection of college and university applications. Admissions officers are experienced in identifying copied content, and if they catch you plagiarizing, your application is unlikely to make it past the initial screening process. This can severely impact your academic and career prospects, as you may miss out on the opportunity to attend your desired institution.

Moreover, colleges and universities have strict plagiarism policies, and if caught, you may face disciplinary action, including failing classes or even being expelled from school.

Damage to Academic Reputation

Being caught plagiarizing can damage your academic reputation, and it may also affect your future applications to graduate school or jobs. In academic and professional settings, integrity is highly valued, and being caught plagiarizing can lead to a loss of trust and respect from peers and colleagues. This can have long-term negative impacts on your career prospects and personal life.

Legal and Financial Ramifications

Plagiarism is not only an ethical violation but also an illegal act. It can result in legal action taken against you, including copyright infringement charges. This can lead to financial issues due to loss of scholarships and grants, legal fees, and a tarnished reputation that can impact future employability.

In addition, plagiarism can also have personal consequences, such as guilt, shame, and a loss of self-esteem. It is essential to understand the severity of plagiarism and its potential consequences to avoid making such a mistake.

Therefore, it is crucial to always give credit where credit is due and to use proper citation methods to avoid plagiarism. It is better to put in the extra effort to create original content than to risk the severe consequences of plagiarism.

How Colleges Detect Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious offense in academic writing and can lead to severe consequences, including expulsion from college. As a result, colleges and universities have developed various tools and techniques to detect plagiarism in students' essays and other academic works.

Plagiarism Detection Software

One of the most common tools used by college admission officers to detect plagiarism is plagiarism detection software. These programs, such as Turnitin and SafeAssign, are designed to scan essays and other academic works for any copied content from other sources. The software compares the submitted work against a vast database of existing works to identify any similarities and flag them as potential instances of plagiarism.

While plagiarism detection software is not foolproof and can sometimes produce false positives, it is still an effective tool that has helped colleges and universities to catch many instances of plagiarism.

Expert Admissions Officers

Experienced admissions officers are another valuable resource in detecting plagiarism. These professionals have read countless essays and application materials and can often spot plagiarized content simply by reviewing your application essay alongside other application materials. They have a keen eye for identifying inconsistencies in writing style, language, and tone that may suggest plagiarism.

Additionally, admissions officers may ask follow-up questions during the interview process to clarify any inconsistencies or discrepancies they may have noticed in your application materials. These questions can help them to spot potential instances of plagiarism and ensure that the application materials are entirely original.

Cross-Checking with Other Application Materials

Admissions officers have access to a wealth of information about applicants, including academic transcripts and essays from past coursework. They can use this information to cross-check your current application materials for any similarities in writing style or language that may suggest plagiarism.

For example, if you submit an essay that uses the same sentence structure and vocabulary as an essay you wrote for a previous class, it may raise red flags for the admissions officers. They may investigate further to determine if the content is original or plagiarized.

Overall, colleges and universities take plagiarism very seriously and have developed various tools and techniques to detect it. By using a combination of plagiarism detection software, expert admissions officers, and cross-checking with other application materials, they can ensure that the application materials are entirely original and free from plagiarism.

Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism in Your Essay

Avoiding plagiarism is vital. Here are some tips to help you develop an original and authentic essay:

Start Early and Plan Your Essay

The earlier you start, the better your chances of avoiding plagiarism. Starting early allows you to have enough time to research and gather information from different sources. You can also create an outline, brainstorm, and create a rough draft, which will help you to see what tasks must be done ahead of schedule. This will also give you enough time to review your work and make necessary changes.

Use Your Own Voice and Experiences

Admissions officers are interested in getting to know you as a person. Share experiences and thoughts that have shaped who you are and make it your own. Remember that this essay is your story, and no one can tell it better than you! Use your own words and avoid copying content from other sources. You can also add personal anecdotes and examples to make your essay more engaging.

Properly Cite Sources and Quotations

If you need to include information from other sources, make sure to cite them in your essay properly. Failure to do so is considered plagiarism, even in the case of unintentional plagiarism. Make use of the correct citation format for the source. This not only helps you avoid plagiarism but also shows that you have done thorough research and can back up your arguments with credible sources.

Seek Feedback from Trusted Sources

Before submitting your application essay, ask trusted sources to review your essay for content or plagiarism. Family members, friends, and teachers can provide you with constructive criticism and spot mistakes that you may have missed. You can also seek help from professional editors who can help you polish your essay and ensure that it is free from plagiarism.

Remember that plagiarism is a serious offense that can have severe consequences. It can damage your academic and professional reputation and even lead to legal issues. By following these tips, you can avoid plagiarism and create an original and authentic essay that showcases your skills and personality.

In conclusion, plagiarism is never worth the risk. The consequences can be severe and may damage your academic record for many years. You can avoid plagiarism in your college application essay by starting early, creating a plan, sharing personal experiences, properly citing sources and quotations, and getting feedback from trusted sources. Remember, it's your story, and no one can tell it better than you!

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Jaden Botros

Stanford (+ 22 colleges)

Harvard Student

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How to Write a College Essay | A Complete Guide & Examples

The college essay can make or break your application. It’s your chance to provide personal context, communicate your values and qualities, and set yourself apart from other students.

A standout essay has a few key ingredients:

• A unique, personal topic
• A compelling, well-structured narrative
• A clear, creative writing style
• Evidence of self-reflection and insight

To achieve this, it’s crucial to give yourself enough time for brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

In this comprehensive guide, we walk you through every step in the process of writing a college admissions essay.

Table of contents

Why do you need a standout essay, start organizing early, choose a unique topic, outline your essay, start with a memorable introduction, write like an artist, craft a strong conclusion, revise and receive feedback, frequently asked questions.

While most of your application lists your academic achievements, your college admissions essay is your opportunity to share who you are and why you’d be a good addition to the university.

Your college admissions essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s total weight一and may account for even more with some colleges making the SAT and ACT tests optional. The college admissions essay may be the deciding factor in your application, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

What do colleges look for in an essay?

Admissions officers want to understand your background, personality, and values to get a fuller picture of you beyond your test scores and grades. Here’s what colleges look for in an essay :

• Demonstrated values and qualities
• Vulnerability and authenticity
• Self-reflection and insight
• Creative, clear, and concise writing skills

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

It’s a good idea to start organizing your college application timeline in the summer of your junior year to make your application process easier. This will give you ample time for essay brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

While timelines will vary for each student, aim to spend at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing your first draft and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Remember to leave enough time for breaks in between each writing and editing stage.

Create an essay tracker sheet

If you’re applying to multiple schools, you will have to juggle writing several essays for each one. We recommend using an essay tracker spreadsheet to help you visualize and organize the following:

• Deadlines and number of essays needed
• Prompt overlap, allowing you to write one essay for similar prompts

You can build your own essay tracker using our free Google Sheets template.

College essay tracker template

Ideally, you should start brainstorming college essay topics the summer before your senior year. Keep in mind that it’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic.

If you want to write about a common essay topic, such as a sports injury or volunteer work overseas, think carefully about how you can make it unique and personal. You’ll need to demonstrate deep insight and write your story in an original way to differentiate it from similar essays.

What makes a good topic?

• Meaningful and personal to you
• Uncommon or has an unusual angle
• Reveals something different from the rest of your application

Brainstorming questions

You should do a comprehensive brainstorm before choosing your topic. Here are a few questions to get started:

• What are your top five values? What lived experiences demonstrate these values?
• What adjectives would your friends and family use to describe you?
• What challenges or failures have you faced and overcome? What lessons did you learn from them?
• What makes you different from your classmates?
• What are some objects that represent your identity, your community, your relationships, your passions, or your goals?
• Whom do you admire most? Why?
• What three people have significantly impacted your life? How did they influence you?

How to identify your topic

Here are two strategies for identifying a topic that demonstrates your values:

• Start with your qualities : First, identify positive qualities about yourself; then, brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities.
• Start with a story : Brainstorm a list of memorable life moments; then, identify a value shown in each story.

After choosing your topic, organize your ideas in an essay outline , which will help keep you focused while writing. Unlike a five-paragraph academic essay, there’s no set structure for a college admissions essay. You can take a more creative approach, using storytelling techniques to shape your essay.

Two common approaches are to structure your essay as a series of vignettes or as a single narrative.

Vignettes structure

The vignette, or montage, structure weaves together several stories united by a common theme. Each story should demonstrate one of your values or qualities and conclude with an insight or future outlook.

This structure gives the admissions officer glimpses into your personality, background, and identity, and shows how your qualities appear in different areas of your life.

Topic: Museum with a “five senses” exhibit of my experiences

• Introduction: Tour guide introduces my museum and my “Making Sense of My Heritage” exhibit
• Story: Racial discrimination with my eyes
• Lesson: Using my writing to document truth
• Story: Broadway musical interests
• Lesson: Finding my voice
• Story: Smells from family dinner table
• Lesson: Appreciating home and family
• Story: Washing dishes
• Lesson: Finding moments of peace in busy schedule
• Story: Biking with Ava
• Lesson: Finding pleasure in job well done
• Conclusion: Tour guide concludes tour, invites guest to come back for “fall College Collection,” featuring my search for identity and learning.

Single story structure

The single story, or narrative, structure uses a chronological narrative to show a student’s character development over time. Some narrative essays detail moments in a relatively brief event, while others narrate a longer journey spanning months or years.

Single story essays are effective if you have overcome a significant challenge or want to demonstrate personal development.

Topic: Sports injury helps me learn to be a better student and person

• Situation: Football injury
• Challenge: Friends distant, teachers don’t know how to help, football is gone for me
• Turning point: Starting to like learning in Ms. Brady’s history class; meeting Christina and her friends
• My reactions: Reading poetry; finding shared interest in poetry with Christina; spending more time studying and with people different from me
• Insight: They taught me compassion and opened my eyes to a different lifestyle; even though I still can’t play football, I’m starting a new game

Brainstorm creative insights or story arcs

Regardless of your essay’s structure, try to craft a surprising story arc or original insights, especially if you’re writing about a common topic.

Never exaggerate or fabricate facts about yourself to seem interesting. However, try finding connections in your life that deviate from cliché storylines and lessons.

Admissions officers read thousands of essays each year, and they typically spend only a few minutes reading each one. To get your message across, your introduction , or hook, needs to grab the reader’s attention and compel them to read more..

Avoid starting your introduction with a famous quote, cliché, or reference to the essay itself (“While I sat down to write this essay…”).

While you can sometimes use dialogue or a meaningful quotation from a close family member or friend, make sure it encapsulates your essay’s overall theme.

Find an original, creative way of starting your essay using the following two methods.

Option 1: Start with an intriguing hook

Begin your essay with an unexpected statement to pique the reader’s curiosity and compel them to carefully read your essay. A mysterious introduction disarms the reader’s expectations and introduces questions that can only be answered by reading more.

Option 2: Start with vivid imagery

Illustrate a clear, detailed image to immediately transport your reader into your memory. You can start in the middle of an important scene or describe an object that conveys your essay’s theme.

A college application essay allows you to be creative in your style and tone. As you draft your essay, try to use interesting language to enliven your story and stand out .

Show, don’t tell

“Tell” in writing means to simply state a fact: “I am a basketball player.” “ Show ” in writing means to use details, examples, and vivid imagery to help the reader easily visualize your memory: “My heart races as I set up to shoot一two seconds, one second一and score a three-pointer!”

First, reflect on every detail of a specific image or scene to recall the most memorable aspects.

• What are the most prominent images?
• Are there any particular sounds, smells, or tastes associated with this memory?
• What emotion or physical feeling did you have at that time?

Be vulnerable to create an emotional response

You don’t have to share a huge secret or traumatic story, but you should dig deep to express your honest feelings, thoughts, and experiences to evoke an emotional response. Showing vulnerability demonstrates humility and maturity. However, don’t exaggerate to gain sympathy.

Use appropriate style and tone

Make sure your essay has the right style and tone by following these guidelines:

• Use a conversational yet respectful tone: less formal than academic writing, but more formal than texting your friends.
• Prioritize using “I” statements to highlight your perspective.
• Write within your vocabulary range to maintain an authentic voice.
• Write concisely, and use the active voice to keep a fast pace.
• Follow grammar rules (unless you have valid stylistic reasons for breaking them).

You should end your college essay with a deep insight or creative ending to leave the reader with a strong final impression. Your college admissions essay should avoid the following:

• Summarizing what you already wrote
• Stating your hope of being accepted to the school
• Mentioning character traits that should have been illustrated in the essay, such as “I’m a hard worker”

Here are two strategies to craft a strong conclusion.

Option 1: Full circle, sandwich structure

The full circle, or sandwich, structure concludes the essay with an image, idea, or story mentioned in the introduction. This strategy gives the reader a strong sense of closure.

In the example below, the essay concludes by returning to the “museum” metaphor that the writer opened with.

Option 2: Revealing your insight

You can use the conclusion to show the insight you gained as a result of the experiences you’ve described. Revealing your main message at the end creates suspense and keeps the takeaway at the forefront of your reader’s mind.

Revise your essay before submitting it to check its content, style, and grammar. Get feedback from no more than two or three people.

It’s normal to go through several rounds of revision, but take breaks between each editing stage.

Also check out our college essay examples to see what does and doesn’t work in an essay and the kinds of changes you can make to improve yours.

Respect the word count

Most schools specify a word count for each essay , and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit.

Remain under the specified word count limit to show you can write concisely and follow directions. However, don’t write too little, which may imply that you are unwilling or unable to write a thoughtful and developed essay.

Check your content, style, and grammar

• First, check big-picture issues of message, flow, and clarity.
• Then, check for style and tone issues.
• Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Get feedback

Get feedback from 2–3 people who know you well, have good writing skills, and are familiar with college essays.

• Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your content, language, and tone.
• Friends and family can check for authenticity.
• An essay coach or editor has specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and can give objective expert feedback.

The checklist below helps you make sure your essay ticks all the boxes.

College admissions essay checklist

I’ve organized my essay prompts and created an essay writing schedule.

I’ve done a comprehensive brainstorm for essay topics.

I’ve selected a topic that’s meaningful to me and reveals something different from the rest of my application.

I’ve created an outline to guide my structure.

I’ve crafted an introduction containing vivid imagery or an intriguing hook that grabs the reader’s attention.

I’ve written my essay in a way that shows instead of telling.

I’ve shown positive traits and values in my essay.

I’ve demonstrated self-reflection and insight in my essay.

I’ve used appropriate style and tone .

I’ve concluded with an insight or a creative ending.

I’ve revised my essay , checking my overall message, flow, clarity, and grammar.

I’ve respected the word count , remaining within 10% of the upper word limit.

Congratulations!

It looks like your essay ticks all the boxes. A second pair of eyes can help you take it to the next level – Scribbr's essay coaches can help.

Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay , they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.

Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

• A unique, personally meaningful topic
• A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
• Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
• Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
• Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
• A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay , and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.

You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.

Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.

You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.

If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.

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Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don’ts

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

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What Are the Consequences of Plagiarism in College Applications?

• September 14, 2021

In This Blog

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Most students dream of joining a good college, and of course, it is their top priority. They are busy filling out applications, writing essays , and a statement of purpose, which can help them set themselves apart from tons of university applications. In this effort, several students try to cheat by copying content from the Internet, which will rob their chance of getting into a top college. The consequences of plagiarism in college applications are severe and colleges are in a better position at detecting it.

Special Tip: If college applications are already done painstakingly and you’re worried about tying the loose financial ends of student loans, don’t forget to check out our article on the Best Ways to Prepare for GRE .

How Does Plagiarism in College Applications Occur?

Educational institutions, especially colleges and universities receive a large number of applications from students. Are those applications free of plagiarism? It is true that students are desperate to get into one of the leading colleges in the world. When competition is fierce and the stakes high, they try different ways to have the winning statements in the application get shortlisted.

The students who are vulnerable try to use someone’s work or engage an essay mill to write on a topic of their interest. What makes students resort to unethical practices? When consequences of plagiarism are becoming more severe, and chances of detecting plagiarism are higher using the advanced tools, students are still accused of plagiarism as they keep taking the risk of doing it. Here are some reasons why plagiarism happens in college applications.

• Fear of Losing

Unlike the students in the past, the students today are under tremendous pressure of doing more. They are always under stress to score good grades to acquire scholarships, get admissions in a university, get a job or internship, and so on. For these, they need to write well to demonstrate their potential skills, which is difficult for many students. When they are not confident about their writing skills but are desperately looking for a high grade, they are induced to cheat, which leads to college application plagiarism. Students do not wish to cheat, but the fear of failure forces them to take a chance.

• Score Higher Grade

The other way round is most students want to score higher grades to join one of the best universities in the country or world. They think that their future depends on this, and spend most of the time thinking about scoring better. With parents joining them, they are emotionally challenged. All these make them take a risk of cheating or causing plagiarism.

How Can You Avoid It?

There are numerous ways to prevent plagiarism in university applications.

• Students can be educated on what is plagiarism and the different types of plagiarism. When writing application essays, plagiarism occurs unintentionally owing to inadequate summarizing and paraphrasing, confusion regarding what is common knowledge, lack of understanding about citation styles and wrong conceptualizing of patch-writing.
• They should learn how to paraphrase a text in their own words, understand what is quoting and summarizing.
• Make proper notes when using a text from the original source, and provide appropriate citations according to the writing style.
• They need to know to use quotation marks when using the original test and cite it properly.

Using a Plagiarism Checker

Students should be made aware of the use of advanced plagiarism checkers , which can detect any type of plagiarism in college application essays. The tool can scan and deliver the results in seconds. A plagiarism checker for universities can conduct in-depth scanning by checking an extensive range of external sources, as well as internal sources for any similar content.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology facilitates the easy detection of files in all Unicode languages. Other than this, it helps scan physical content using OCR technology. The grading tool helps score the application essays easily and effectively.

Consequences of Plagiarism in a College Application

If you are not true on your college applications, is it unlawful? There are no instances of students charged for such practices. Nevertheless, the consequences of plagiarism or cheating are not small. The college admission committee will reject applications if they find strong evidence of plagiarism in admission essays. Such an action is a warning for students to not fail in complying with the codes of conduct that affect academic integrity. Most educational institutions are spending a lot of time and energy steering clear of plagiarism in college admissions. Students are educated on the outcomes and new resources to help them avoid plagiarism.

By rejecting applications, the admission committee at the university dissuades students to carry the cheating or copying tendency to the campus. They claim that such students cannot uphold academic honesty, as well as adopt the ethical culture on campus. The severity of consequences does not end there, students responsible for cheating will face expulsion from college and destruction of reputation. They will be rejected by other institutions and may have to face any legal action for copyright infringement.

Sometimes, the original author will have to be compensated for breaking the copyright law. You should also be worried about being questioned by the college administration staff, where your academic qualifications, objectives, and dream are questioned. You lose your teachers’ faith and respect, which you gained through your academic effort and honesty. You cannot afford to lose it by an unethical act. It is found that students who have gotten away with plagiarism detection on their college essays may continue this form of misconduct on college campuses and later on the job. Thus, cheating on college applications through shortcuts may harm the ethical environment of the campus. As it grows to become endemic, it should be stopped at the gates itself.

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March 2, 2011

Plagiarized College Essays

What do Vice President Joe Biden, poet T. S. Eliot, and historian Stephen Ambrose all have in common? They have all at some point been accused of plagiarism. While Eliot’s plagiarism would be discovered posthumously, both Biden and Ambrose would live to regret their lapses in judgment.

The consequences of plagiarism on a college essay, in particular, can reverberate for a lifetime. It can very well result in one’s admission being rescinded or, once a student has matriculated, it can result in expulsion. Degrees can even be revoked. And then there’s the embarrassment it would bring not only to the student, but also to his or her family, school, and community.

It it okay to get help on a college essay? You bet! To not brainstorm college essay topics with someone well versed in the field of selective college admissions, to not have someone review and critique those very essays can put an applicant at a disadvantage. Novelists don’t publish books without their editors, their editor’s assistants, and a team of readers first offering creative insight and proofing. In television, with a few notable exceptions like Marc Cherry’s Desperate Housewives , pilot scripts are rarely bought as completed products. Rather, they are purchased as ideas and, together with creative notes from studio and network executives, that pitch is shaped into a story arena, an outline, and, alas, a script that can be produced as a pilot episode.

In an article published recently in The Dartmouth , America’s oldest college newspaper, the topic of plagiarism on college applications and a new tool to combat it are addressed. The tool is dubbed “Turnitin for Admissions” and it uses “pattern-matching technology” to identify plagiarized material in college essays. While the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Dartmouth, Maria Laskaris, voices skepticism about the tool and doesn’t like the idea that it assumes applicants are dishonest from the start, this is nonetheless technology that may soon be used by The Common Application review system.

Laskaris’ reluctance to use the technology is admirable. She believes in the integrity of the applicants to Dartmouth. Her staff of admissions officers is trained to detect plagiarism. And yet Laskaris, like Tom Cruise’s character in The Last Samurai , is seemingly fighting the future. The fact is that this kind of technology will save time. It will be able to detect plagiarism that may go unnoticed by the human eye, even a well-trained eye.

Some students are fearful that this technology has a tendency to pick up strings of words that may not have in fact been plagiarized. But as long as admissions officers then review the batch of applications suspected of plagiarism, there should be no reason to fear if you are not guilty of lifting words, sentences, paragraphs, or entire essays!

In the article in The D , a student, Ahmad Nazeri ’11, says, “I feel like it’s a waste of resources to put 20,000 applications through a system and spend thousands of dollars on the process and a lot of energy and time.” But we disagree with Mr. Nazeri as computers take less time than humans to detect plagiarism. For a service fee, a college will invariably save money using this technology.

What if administrators at a college discover that an essay that was written by an admitted applicant two years ago was plagiarized? This could be cause for expulsion. When that happens, the college’s retention rate, a key factor in the US News and World Report rankings, will be adversely affected, and so may its endowment. Mr. Nazeri, there is so much more money that could be lost — not to mention the college’s reputation if it graduates plagiarists.

This isn’t just true in elite college admissions. It’s true in baseball, in medicine, and in finance. Computer programs that algorithmically discover findings and patterns in data have transformed industries. Ms. Laskaris’ intentions are honorable. We love that she believes in the integrity of candidates. But we would recommend she “trust, but verify.”

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When college applicants plagiarize, Turnitin can spot them

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The student’s admissions essay for Boston University’s MBA program was about persevering in the business world. “I have worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships.”

Another applicant’s essay for UCLA’s Anderson School of Management was about his father. He “worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships.”

Sound familiar? The Boston University student’s essay was written in 2003 and had been posted at businessweek.com. The UCLA applicant was rejected this year — for plagiarism.

The detection of such wholesale cheating in college applications is on the rise due to the use of Turnitin for Admissions, an anti-plagiarism database service that compares student essays to an immense archive of other writings. Around the country, more than 100 colleges and universities have adopted it, mainly in graduate divisions, although Stanford University is among the dozen schools starting to use it for freshman applicants this year.

That growth highlights the search for authenticity in college admissions at a time when the Internet offers huge amounts of tempting free material, increasing numbers of private coaches sell admissions advice, and online companies peddle pre-written essays. In addition, the larger numbers of applications from overseas have raised concerns about cheating that may be difficult for U.S. schools to discover unaided.

“The more we can nip unethical behavior in the bud, the better,” said Andrew Ainslie, a senior associate dean at UCLA Anderson. “It seems to us nobody ought to be able to buy their way into a business school.”

In the school’s first review of essays from potential MBA candidates this year, Turnitin found significant plagiarism — beyond borrowing a phrase here and there — in a dozen of the 870 applications, Ainslie said. All 12 were rejected.

Turnitin — as in, “turn it in” — began in the 1990s and became a popular tool at high schools and colleges to help detect copying in academic term papers and research by scanning for similarities in phrases from among billions of Web pages, books and periodicals.

Two years ago, the Oakland-based firm developed a service for admissions decisions, allowing large numbers of essays to be reviewed quickly and creating a database of students’ essays. The service shows sections of essays next to the possible source and calculates a percentage of possibly copied material. It is left up to schools to determine whether the plagiarism was minor, accidental or serious enough to reject the applicant.

“If you are a very selective institution, or a very prestigious institution, and you have a huge number of people vying for just a couple of slots, admissions people want to make sure they have all the information to make the fair decision,” said Jeff Lorton, Turnitin for Admissions’ product and business development manager.

Internal testing of the database, using past essays, showed plagiarism ranging from about 3% to 20% of applicants, Lorton said.

Colleges want “to be proactive in discouraging dishonesty,” said Richard Shaw, Stanford’s dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid.

So Stanford will test Turnitin on the 7% or so of its 36,000 applicants who make it past other hurdles to be offered admissions, Shaw said. If plagiarism is detected, students will be allowed to respond but probably will face revocation.

Other schools are skeptical about using Turnitin on prospective freshmen, especially since the company charges large campuses several thousands of dollars a year. Rather, plagiarists can be discovered when admissions officers notice mismatches between strong application essays and weak grades, interviews and SAT or ACT writing samples, said David Hawkins, public policy and research director of the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling. Schools also fear wasting time on false positives triggered by cliches and platitudes, he said.

And experts say it can be easy to tell when several applicants repeat the same material or, more glaring, when they don’t change electronic typefaces from their sources.

Turnitin’s freshman screening could rise sharply, however, if the service is adopted by Common Application, the online service used by 456 college admissions offices. Rob Killion, Common Application executive director, said there is “a very real chance” it will add Turnitin in 2013.

Among current Turnitin for Admissions users are some graduate schools at Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, Northeastern and Iowa State. They pay annual fees that start at $1,500 and rise depending on volume, averaging about a dollar per application, Lorton said. About half the schools explicitly tell applicants about the detection while others warn more vaguely.

Before adding the tool, staffers at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business two years ago discovered 29 essays about “principled leadership” that contained material lifted from the Web, said Carrie Marcinkevage, the MBA program’s managing director. Except for a few borderline cases, those graduate school applications were denied.

Since then, Turnitin has helped find plagiarism rates of between 3% and 5%, Marcinkevage said, adding that the technology is worthwhile since it “covers a lot more ground” than humans can.

Dominican University of California, in San Rafael, recently began using Turnitin in graduate programs. Applicants sometimes “resort to whatever means possible to get an edge. It’s unfortunate, but I think it’s human nature,” graduate admissions director Larry Schwartz said.

A few suspicious reports are being investigated and most suspected plagiarists will be given “the benefit of the doubt” and a chance to submit a second essay for scrutiny, Schwartz said.

At UCLA Anderson, one recent applicant didn’t search far for essay material. He stole verbatim from the school’s website in citing “exceptional academic preparation, a cooperative and congenial student culture, and access to a thriving business community.”

If plagiarists like that are denied admissions, future business leaders may include fewer unethical careerists, said UCLA Anderson’s Ainslie. “If they are going to do that,” he said, “they are going to do it in every aspect of their lives.”

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Ban or Embrace? Colleges Wrestle With A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays.

A.I. chatbots could facilitate plagiarism on college applications or democratize student access to writing help. Or maybe both.

• Share full article

By Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer reports on the ways that tech giants and their tools are reshaping education.

Rick Clark, the executive director of undergraduate admission at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his staff spent weeks this summer pretending to be high school students using A.I. chatbots to fill out college applications.

The admissions officers each took on a different high school persona: swim team captain, Eagle Scout, musical theater performer. Then they fed personal details about the fictional students into ChatGPT, prompting the A.I. chatbot to produce the kind of extracurricular activity lists and personal essays commonly required on college applications.

Mr. Clark said he wanted to get a handle on how A.I. chatbots might reshape the admissions process this fall — the start of the first full academic year that the tools will be widely available to high school seniors — and come up with guidance for students applying to Georgia Tech.

“Students on some level are going to have access to and use A.I.,” Mr. Clark said. “The big question is: How do we want to direct them, knowing that it’s out there and available to them?”

The easy availability of A.I. chatbots like ChatGPT, which can manufacture humanlike text in response to short prompts, is poised to upend the traditional undergraduate application process at selective colleges — ushering in an era of automated plagiarism or of democratized student access to essay-writing help. Or maybe both.

The digital disruption comes at a turning point for institutions of higher education across the United States. After the Supreme Court ruled in June that race-based university admissions programs were illegal, some selective universities and colleges had hoped to rely more on essay questions — about applicants’ upbringing, identities and communities — to help foster diversity on campus.

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College Essay Plagiarism​​

So, I have read from a couple of blogs that colleges use turnitin.com to check essays for plagiarism. But I have aslo noticed that there are several colleges that have either the same or very similar prompts for their supplemental essays. My question is, does submiting the same, or similar, essays to these prompts would make me look like I have plagiarized?

If one college puts my essay into turnitin.com then the other colleges will see my essays with a high percentage of plagiarism.

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I plagiarized a little on my essay.

<p>Hey CC, I have a confession. I plagiarized a little from an essay on a college forum. It fit so well with my topic that I had to take a few lines. I reworded some of the lines, but I left some of the lines the way they were. Will this affect me and will colleges find out? Also, my essay was 620 words, but I could guarantee that my college essay is pretty strong.</p>

<p>Hopefully</p>

<p>If a school detects the plagiarism, you will be rejected. Would they notify common app and hence all the other schools you are applying to? Maybe. Some schools contract with outside companies to track plagiarism, so there is a real possibility you could be caught. If you have other schools to submit to, you’d better make a new Common App with totally new essay. When you don’t cheat, you don’t have to worry about getting caught.</p>

<p>If you plagiarized from an online college forum, then it would be very easy to stick your essay into a search engine or some other web site feature and search for it. Especially if you left whole sentences exactly as-is.</p>

<p>I actually copied and pasted each sentence into google/search engines. NONE of it came up. Also, if I only copied a few sentences, how is that going to get detected? I don’t understand.</p>

<p>Do you guys know any websites that give a plagiarism check? I’ll let you know if it was plagiarized or not.</p>

<p>Will you get caught if you just plagiarized a sentence or two? Probably not. Can you get caught and has it happened before? Of course.</p>

<p>It is like the lottery. Decide for yourself whether you want to play it or not. I certainly wouldn’t. And you shouldn’t expect people suggesting it.</p>

<p>Yeah, it’s not plagiarized for sure. I just did 3 plagiarism test on a couple of good “turnitin” type of websites. 0 Plagiarism found.</p>

<p>definitely not a risk I would take.</p>

<p>I’m guessing the tools and methods used by services hired by Harvard, for example, are more sophisticated than what you have. Better hope nothing looks fishy or they don’t do a spot check on yours. Assuming they don’t just check all the essays of students they are ready to accept.</p>

<p>Regardless of whether it would be found out, it’s still a dick move. Come up with something like it on your own, you give transfers a bad name.</p>

<p>You should have just written it yourself. There is no guarantee that what you plagiarized is what they are looking for. So you run the risk of getting caught for plagiarism as well as that they may not like it and may have liked your own thoughts better. And if you do get in, there is always a chance that it could be detected and come and bite you down the road. Was it really worth it to have to worry about it for four years if you get in?</p>

<p>WOW.</p>

<p>tsenchar</p>

<p>^My sentiments exactly</p>

<p><a href=“ http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/126/314/3cd8a33a.png?1306264975[/url] ”> http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/126/314/3cd8a33a.png?1306264975&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt ;

<p>Why did you even take the risk in the first place? Have you submitted the essay yet? If yes, best of luck to you. If no, then change it</p>

<p>this is why you dont post your essay online…</p>

<p>Wow. Do you feel any guilt or remorse whatsoever? How do you expect to succeed in college when you can’t even write a short essay to be accepted?</p>

<p>…wow, you’re cool. I’m sorry but I hope college do find out about it.</p>

<p>Plagiarism is fine in small doses. You’ll be fine op.</p>

<p>Jk. You should do a follow up of this thread in college when you plagiarize on a research paper and the professor finds out.</p>

Calculate for all schools

Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, do colleges check for plagiarism in application essays.

Hi all, I'm curious about how colleges handle plagiarism in application essays. Do they use plagiarism detection software or do they rely on admissions officers to notice when something seems off? Thanks in advance for any insights!

Hi there! Great question. Colleges do indeed take plagiarism very seriously when it comes to application essays. While admissions officers are quite skilled at detecting when something seems off, many colleges also utilize plagiarism detection software to ensure that submitted essays are original work.

It's important to remember that the purpose of the essay is to showcase your unique voice and experiences. Plagiarizing another person's work not only reflects poorly on your character, but it also does a disservice to your own personal growth and development.

To avoid any issues with plagiarism, I suggest taking the time to brainstorm and create an outline before starting your essay. This will help you develop a solid structure and thought process, ultimately leading to a more genuine and personal piece.

In the end, it's always best to be honest and submit an essay that truly represents who you are. Good luck with your college application process!

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